Freedom from Fear

A beautiful video from Isha Judd about fear.

Day 547

These days there is a lot of snow. The busses are only driving on the main roads. Schools have been closed today. And the roads are iced and white. Never in Germany I experienced that much snow. Besides times in the south of germany where this is “normal”.

I moved to another place. Living now on a little old farm with horses and families with kids. Having my own place and nice neighbourhood. This will only be for a couple of months, and then I have to find again another place, as this is rented in holidaytime to guests.

I feel fine here. The beard is not an issue anymore. Quite normal. People see the person behind and after a couple of hours they don´t even see the beard anymore. So I often don´t know what I should write in this blog.

Day 530 Frau mit Bart sucht….Woman with beard looking for work

Tonight there will be a new report about me looking for work and how people reacted on RTL.

You can see a short trailer online here. The film which is about 15 minutes was online at Faszination Leben only for 1 week. There is a new film online every week.

Day 493

About the beard: When I walk around in Hamburg, Lueneburg and on the countryside it is easy with the beard and people react in a respectful way. Just looking for a job is not easy.

I think in Germany people still have problems with people who are different or look different then the majority.

A man on the cashier told me he had seen me on tv and had liked it and thinks it is good what I do and that it might be a new fashion!

On youtube I get some really positive and on the other hand some really negative comments. It is interesting to observe what people think.

I applyed for a job by mail and did send a picture of me wearing mens clothes made on the fotoshooting I had the other month. The lady wrote back excusing for saying woman to me…she thought I was a man, even I had written woman!

Day 484

During the last days I did not find time to write something in my blog. During the last weeks I lived at a place together with two women and two teenagers. I left this place, as we did not get on well anymore, and also because the space I had was too little to do creative work. Now I can stay in a house in the countryside, where I will have a lot more space. This place is ment to be for people working on an organic farm. At the moment many people are leaving the farm and they are waiting for new members to come. As long as they have not arrived, I can stay at this house. At least for one or two month for sure.  I had to promise to leave, as soon, as the space is needed.

I do not have internet there and I have to see how to write the blog. I asked for mobile internet, but the place is out of reception of the internet. So I have to go to Hamburg or Lüneburg or other places to go in the internet.

During the past weeks I was really buisy looking for a job. I had no more money, went to the unemployment agency and went to someone who helps to find a job, don´t know the english word. It is a Arbeitsvermittler in German.

I found then a job in a warehouse in Hamburg together with many students. We had to put new labels on the goods. After only a few days we all had to go. The reason that I guess was that we might have been too expensive for them.

When I arrived the lady that was in charge of me, looked starled and after a while she told me that she had problems with my beard. And I said that I thought working in the storagerooms would be ok even with a beard. She said yes, but not with the clients. As they had strict rules, as to have no piercing or tatoo when working with clients and women to have make up and so on.  They were scared to make a bad impression on the clients…….and so on…

And it is difficult to talk about this, as there is also a law in Germany that sais that you should not discriminate people by the way they look.

Still people in Germany are discriminated by the way they look. A student from Mali told me that she knows these situations. Her german is excellent and when she phones for a job noone would know that she is from another country. When the person she phoned meets her she sometimes is told that the job is already gone…..the same I had to experience some weeks ago in Luenburg.

What a pitty that people are judged by the way they look and not how they work! They should at last give people a chance to show how well they work!

So the boss prefers the blond girl that looks like the models in the magazine.

The job in the storageroom went fine and I liked it. So it was a pitty that soon it ended. They did not tell us why, but I guess we were too expensive for them. They might have calculated wrong.

This evening I will move to another place for the next months and I will prepare to do some fingerpuppets and sewing for the market on 12th of december. Hoping to earn some money and to play a bit for the kids with the puppets.

Day 454

Meanwhile I am back from Switzerland in Germany. I left Dresden, where I spend the last months and went back to an area close to Lueneburg in the north of Germany, where a lot of alternative people are living. A few kilometers away is Gorleben a place where the atomic waste is “stored”. More than 20 years ago people protested against this storage place and moved in this area.  The landscape and nature in this area called Wendland is beautiful.

I am happy now to live together with some people in the nature. Great to have silence.

I do not have to tell much more. Life is going on. The beard is part of me and the reactions of people are more or less the same. Some don´t care, others are wondering or staring. In this area of germany people seem to be more tolerant for people who are “different”.

If you understand german you can have a look at my german blog www.fraumitbart.de where I write more often than on this blog.

Impressions from Luzern

Advertisment in the streets of Luzern…….

Luzern Day 421 and 422

These days we are in Luzern. I did not see much more than the surrounding of the hotel and the modern railwaystation. During the last weeks traveling I had most of the time to be with the kid on the playgrounds and be the teacher. So I did not really have much time to see a lot from the places we visited.

Yesterday we went for a swim in the sea. There is a public beach, which is full of the shit of the birds living there. This was so disgusting, that I do not want to go swimming in the lake again. The other day we I went swimming from the pedalboat and that was great. The water clear and no shit around.

While walking to the beach we passed the fair, that is just being build up next to the KKL where the artists have their performance. Yesterday it was completely sold out. 

VW in Biel

Wonderful old VW in Biel.

Sweets in Switzerland

Sweets in Switzerland ….